MAME
ReviewsNot having any real standout
games in the latest MAME version, I went back and played some of the games that
were emulated earlier. So enjoy these reviews and have fun playing those games.

Blasteroids
I am a big fan of Asteroids, especially Asteroids Deluxe. So after finishing a
game of Asteroids Deluxe, I started going down the list of games that I have and
came across Blasteroids. Hmmm, sounds like Asteroids, let's give it a try. I
have had this game for quite awhile, but never really played it. So I decided it
was time to give it a whirl.

When you start playing, two things are noticeable.
First, it plays like Asteroids. Guess the name actually fit. Secondly, it may
play like Asteroids, but it sure doesn't look like Asteroids. This is one of
them spruced up versions of Asteroids. You know where the asteroids look more
realistic and spin. Sure does look mighty purty, but does it play as well? After
a few games, I realized that I missed my old Asteroids. Not that this game isn't
good, but there is something charming about the sheer simplicity of the
original. This one is a bit too modernized for these old bones.

One of the most noticeable differences between
this game and the original is that you do not die when hit by a rock. In this
game, you can get hit numerous times before dying. You have one of them nifty
health meters that goes down with each hit and every shot. It also goes up every time
you hit something, so you are in constant struggle to keep from running out of
energy. So you end up with one eye on the asteroids and one eye on the energy
meter, which can cause you to go cross-eyed over time.

Another new feature in this game is the ability
to switch ships. In the grand tradition of Transformers and whatever other
series allowed you to transform into something else, Blasteroids allows you to
become more than meets the eye! You can be a little ship that is fast, a medium
ship or a very big and very slow ship. Each has advantages and disadvantages in
regards to shooting, ability to take damage and speed. The nice thing is you can
switch back and forth to your heart's content. If you are someone who is very
indecisive, then you may want to avoid this game.

(Are you scared? Mukor thinks you are!)

The last and biggest difference from this game and the original, is that there
is an actual mission. You are not just wandering around aimlessly in space,
trying to clear the space paths or something like that. You actually have an
honest to goodness mission! There is this big head that floats around space
named Mukor and thinks he rules space. Think of him as a poor man's Sinistar. He
actually is pretty silly looking, like something out of Johnny Socko or Ultraman
(or for you younger readers, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). But don't let this
butt ugly creature scare you, he is pretty easy to take down. But first you need
to clear all the screens to even see the ugly mug.

While the new challenges and additions make it a
interesting game, they couldn't capture the sheer terror of being stuck in the
middle of an asteroid shower, knowing that if they hit you, it was all over.
While the changing ships and the mission are nice additions, they are just
window dressing. They do little to make this anything more than a modernized
version of Asteroids that has been watered down in the process.

Targ
There are always those simple little games that drive you crazy. Games like
Tetris and Hunt the Wumpus are ones that I find myself playing over and over,
despite their simplistic nature. Well, Targ is another of those games.
Everything about it screams out old, ancient and archaic. It is a simple game
from a simple era. But like many classic games, it is the gameplay that is the
main selling point!

When you first look at the game, you can imagine
it as a public domain game. It looks alot like something a high school student
would do. You have a bunch of blocks in rows and there are ships that come down
them. I am being very generous in calling them ships as they are very generic in
design. The look like the letter "v" and you look like an ugly green
car. As you race up the rows, you try to shoot and destroy all the enemy ships.
They do not shoot back, but instead take off and try to outflank you. They have
sheer numbers on their side (ten to one). Simple right! Well, it is harder than
it appears. Those blasted ships may start off by coming right at you, but they
soon begin to avoid your bullets. To make matters worse, after a little while, a
ship that looks like it belongs in a Star Trek game pops up and comes after you.
Unlike the other ships, this one comes right after you. It is like a homing
missile. It also makes a very annoying siren sound as it chases after you.

If you clear a level, you get a bonus and start
all over again. Like I said, it is a very simple game! But it is fun and a bit
addictive in its own way. Sure, it cannot compare to some of the other classics
that came out the same year like Pac-man and Defender, but it is still a fun
little game and worth a few rounds. But be careful as you may find yourself
playing alot more than you bargained for!

Top
Ten Unemulated MAME Games
A long time ago, I did an article about what games I would like to see added to
MAME. They were games like Ripoff, Joust 2 and Munch Mobile. Well, all of them
have been added! So I am one happy camper! But, being an American and always
wanting more, here is a list of more games that I would like to see added to
MAME. Keep in mind, that if they never added another game, I could die a happy
man. But I found a site that has a huge list of all the games that are not part
of MAME. Here is the URL for anyone interested.: http://www.arcadeathome.com/btribble/mm2.html

So as I dug through the list, I found quite a few
games that I would really like to play. Some are old favorites of mine, others
are ones that I never played, but intrigue me. But all of them would be great to
play! So read on and see what my new wish list is!

10. Tunnel Hunt-After reading an
article in Next Generation about this game and how often it was delayed, I would
like to actually play it.

09. Dungeon & Dragons series-I
love these games and the Sega Saturn CD is so darn expensive.

08. Slither-You can always use
another trackball game. Plus, the Coleco version is not the best and the Coleco
trackball is only decent.

07. Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom-Not
the best game, but would like to see what the original arcade version looks
like. I have only played the Colecovision version for so long.

06. Captain America and the Avengers-Always
liked this side scrolling beat em up. Not only did it have a bunch of cool
Marvel heroes and villains, but villains would pop up to help you out!

05. Hard Drivin-I spent way too
much money on this bad boy. It was cool to do loops and crashes and not have to
worry about your insurance going up!

04. Primal Rage-I was always a fan
of Harryhausen, O'Brien and other stop motion animators and this game paid great
homage to those men who made stop motion animation so cool! Plus, there is no
7th Voyage of Sinbad video game to play, so this is as close as you get. I
personally would like to see a game with all the Harryhausen creatures doing
battle!

03. Subroc-One of those arcade and Coleco games that I really
enjoy. It is one of those intense games that you can lose yourself in!

02. Namco Classic Collections #1 & 2-These
include three games each (#1 has Galaga, Xevious and Mappy and #2 has Dig Dug,
Pacman and Rally X) and feature two player simultaneous gameplay. That is just
too cool

01. Peter Pepper's Ice Cream-Burgertime
sequel that I never even knew existed. The only problem here is this game is so
rare that it is doubtful that it will be emulated anytime soon. But we all need
to dream!

Classic
Video Game Show!
Another classic game show is going to take place. The PhillyClassic will take
place in Philadelphia, PA on the weekend of April 14-16. You can order advance
tickets for only $6.00 each or $8.00 on the day of the show! It will have a tournament,
auction and more! Quite a deal for only $6.00! That is less than it cost to see
a movie! So if you are in the neighborhood or looking for a reason to take a
trip, check out the PhillyClassic, it is sure to be a great time! Here is the
URL to the official site:

Sites
of the Month
Two more addresses on the information superhighway that you should check out!
Once again, I give two sites the spotlight, so go check them out and keep
sending in your submissions.

Retrocactus
The name is a bit odd, but the site is top notch! Site proprietor, John Biehler,
started it off to show the development of his arcade cabinet. It has since grown
into a site about all kinds of video games. Everything from Atari 2600 to the
Turbo Grafx is covered here. He has filled the site with lots of great screen
shots and info about the various systems.

One nice feature is his downloadable Retro
Wallpaper! One is the familiar Atari symbol, while the other is the Vectrex
logo. Sure beats the usual wallpaper you see. Look for more in the coming
months.

One nice thing about the site is if you look at
what's new, you see that he is always adding more stuff. Every couple of days,
he is creating a new section or adding to a new one! So there is always
something new to look at!

He does not stop with just game systems, he also
has stuff about computers and handhelds! So there is something for everyone. If
you don't see something you like, wait a few weeks and you may. A very good job
and getting better all the time! Check it out at the following URL: http://www.vannet.com/retrocactus/

MAMEZine
Ask and ye shall receive! Last month, I was asking if there were any other
classic game newsletters on the web and lo and behold, I get an email. This is a
new fanzine that is dedicated to MAME. It currently has two issues out and boy
are they big! If you like reviews, I mean really like reviews, then go to this
site! He does as many reviews in one issue that I do in ten issues of RT. The
reviews are consise and very good! Each has a picture, a review and some
ratings. A very nice job.

While the bulk of the newsletter is reviews,
there are also sections on emulation sites, top 10 lists and more! Aber does
give you alot to read! Like RT, this is not a quick read. So grab a cool
beverage (or in this weather, a warm one), a snack and sit down and read. I know
it gives me something to look forward to!

As some of you remember, I wrote an article a
while back about putting together my own MAME cabinet (see issue
#24 ). Since that time, I have enjoyed countless hours of play with this set
up. Most of my time has been spent playing Robotron 2084, but I, and my family
have played any number of other games.

Christmas was hosted at our house 3 times this
past holiday season. My family, my wife’s sister and her family and the rest
of my wife’s family were at our house on different days over the holidays. The
active machines in the game room were a Roadblasters upright, a Lifeforce
upright, a NES setup (with a 110-1 cart) and the MAME cabinet. The machine that
got the most attention was the MAME unit. I think that was because of the
variety of games it offered. Some of the younger ones wanted to know how it was
put together, while the older people wanted to know if there was a way to make
money by building those things.

I almost had my parents (who have been divorced
for 20 years) talked into playing each other in Tetris. I would have paid money
to see that. Big money.

But since the beginning of this project, I’ve
been thinking of ways to improve both the appearance and function of the
machine.

I was able to pick up a ROBOTRON monitor glass in
decent shape from ebay at a reasonable price. I was surprised how much better it
made the machine look.

Watching the machine being played over the
holidays really brought to the forefront of how underpowered my CPU was (AMD
150+). I’ve wanted to upgrade my MAME CPU for a while, but just didn’t have
the money.

Well, that’s not really true.

What it came down to was I didn’t want to mess
around with something that was working. You all know how it goes. You try to
improve or upgrade and the next thing you know, you have a fancy paperweight. My
reluctance and common-sense was finally overridden by the desire to play more,
better, faster. So last month, I bought a new motherboard and CPU (AMD K6-2/450)
and settled in to begin the process.

I waited until the family was out of town. I
really didn’t need my 4 year old “helper” around when I was doing this.
After sliding the cabinet out from the wall, I removed the CPU unit and began
the process.

It was 7:30 PM.

The process should have been simple. Unplug the
cards and cables. Remove the motherboard. Put the new motherboard and CPU in,
plug everything back in, set the bios and I would be back in business. The whole
process shouldn’t have taken more than 2 hours.

Instead it took until 2 in the morning.

Everything went as planned until I went to get
the bios to recognize the disk drives. After fighting it for 30 minutes, I came
to the conclusion that my main disk drive had somehow crashed. It was gone;
dead; kaput; a late disk drive…. a paperweight.

Fortunately, I had a spare drive. It was smaller,
but it would have to do. After much searching, I found my WIN98 CD and began the
laborious process of reloading everything. Now maybe other people are more
organized than I am. And maybe other people keep better track of their hardware
CDs and diskettes. This MAME machine was originally put together with spare
parts that I had lying around the house. So I did not have an easy time finding
my video and sound setup disks. At least I had plenty of time to search while
WIN98 loaded from the old 8X CD-Rom drive.

Did I mention how much it hurts to kneel on a
screwdriver ?

Once the hardware was running, I had to reload
MAME, the Arcade-at-Home front end and all the ROMS. Since I do my downloading
on other PCs, most of my stuff was on CDRs. And what wasn’t was easily copied
and reloaded back into the machine.

It’s now 1 am. Everything is running. I
disconnect the CPU from my test monitor and reinstall it into the cabinet. I
reconnect the controls, monitor and sound and slide the cabinet back where it
belongs. I power up and decide to try just one game to make sure everything
works.

It’s now 2 am. I’ve set a new personal high
score on Robotron. The Simpson’s work perfectly. The Neo Geo games even run
well. Sure, it’s taken a lot more work than expected. And a lot more time. But
it was worth it.

And for another enhancement. A few weeks ago, I
was introduced to another emulator called RAINE. It originally started out as an
emulator for Rainbow Islands, but has since expanded to include a lot of Taito
and Jaleco games. If you are a fan of Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble or horizontal
and vertical shooting games, I recommend you give this a try. You can find more
info about it at <http://www.rainemu.com/>
or <http://www.arcadeathome.com/>
in the Arcade EMU section. I installed it in the cabinet and I have been having
a blast with it.

I guess I’ll have to change the name of the my
cabinet from the MAME cabinet to the EMU cabinet.

So what’s next for the cabinet ? My disk drive
is almost filled. I have a 17 gig drive waiting in the wings. I also have a 16
meg AGP video card to install. I’m also considering replacing the PC trackball
that’s screwed onto the control panel with a HAPP controls arcade trackball
and PC interface. And if I’m going to mess around with the control panel, I
might as well replace the WRESTLEFEST overlay with a ROBOTRON. And, while I’m
at it, I’d like to replace the hacked keyboard with an encoder.

But not for a while. I hate to mess with
something that is working.

Fred has been playing games for over 25 years and
actively collecting them for over 10. The 2400 + games that he has takes up most
of his home office and living room. He lives in Denver, PA with his
understanding wife Jennie, his 4 year-old, button-loving son, Max and his newly
acquired 4th player, Lynzie. If anyone is interested in rectangular-shaped, 1½ pound paperweight that was a disk drive in a former life, he can reached at fcw3@postoffice.ptd.net.

In this episode, radioactive mutant insects from
the year 5000 terrorize our intrepid classic gaming heroes!

Either that, or it's about the future of prices.

This is a sore spot for many collectors, so read
on only if you dare. OK, now that you've dared, I will be the bearer of bad news
and say that prices will go UP. But hey, come in off that window ledge; it won't
really be that bad. I predict prices will only increase significantly on the
very rare items. Common stuff might go up few bucks, but that'll be it.
Mid-range Rares will go up a little more, but not enough that you won't be able
to afford the games you want. The UR one-of-a-kind prototypes will always be
expensive, and will probably reach monumentally ridiculous prices as longtime
collectors find that they have almost everything else available. They'll start
shelling out big bucks to pick up that prototype that will complete their
collection, especially since they won't be spending as much on the other stuff.
But this won't really affect the rest of us, other than seeing a plethora of
"Can you BELIEVE what this guy paid on eBay?!?!" posts popping up on
the newsgroup.

Profiteers may surface in the short term, but
they will only affect prices for a short time and there's no law that says you
have to buy from them. Eventually, they'll sell out and their stock will
circulate among collectors at "reasonable" prices. The thing to
remember is that this will always be a buyer's market, except for the really
rare stuff. An economist might say that the reason for this is that supply will
probably always outstrip demand, but that's why economists are boring and no one
ever talks to them at parties. I say it's because we are cheap.

Say someone is selling a rare Atari 2600 cart I
want. He's asking too much money for it, so I look somewhere else. Even if I
don't find that specific cart for sale cheaper, I will probably find another
game to spend my money on. If other collectors value the game about the same as
I do, the seller won't sell it until he lowers the price. Simply put, we're
cheap and will refuse to spend our money on items that are priced too high
(unless they're really rare). We can call our own prices and still buy stuff,
because there's almost always something else you want (it's the nature of being
a greedy bast--I mean, "collector"). There just aren't enough
collectors to drive up demand that much, so prices probably won't get out of
hand.

However, prices will gradually rise as thrifts no
longer produce cheap cart bounties and things get broken.

Carts hardly ever fail, but labels will
deteriorate, driving the scarcity of "mint label" carts higher. You
like your cart minty fresh, don't you? However, there are enough collectors who
don't care about label conditions to hold this price increase to a slow pace.
Also, with more of us taking better care of our collections, deterioration will
occur more slowly. The exception of course is Activision carts, which apparently
were glued together with sulfuric acid.

The area that will suffer the most from old age
is hardware. That and your sex life. Electronic components fail after so many
years go by. We're already witnessing the demise of one system: the Milton
Bradley Microvision. How many of these units still have a working LCD screen? In
a few years, will any of them still work? If more people were actually
interested in *playing* this system, prices could go through the roof. However,
interest is low enough that prices remain relatively stable.

This won't happen with the next most threatened
system: the Vectrex. Vectrex has more sophisticated electronics inside it, so
it's more likely to fail. Vectrex systems are already valuable; as they start to
fail, they're going to get really expensive. What's more, their special hardware
means that they can't be authentically emulated, not really. It just not the
same without the dedicated Vectrex monitor. Vectorheads will clamor for
replacement consoles if theirs fail, so be prepared for some price increases in
about 10 years or so. If you want a Vectrex at all (and you SHOULD, my friend),
you may want to take the plunge and get one now. They won't get cheaper unless
someone uncovers a warehouse full of them. That outcome is unlikely, though not
impossible, but if it does happen, one thing is certain: it won't be me who gets
lucky enough to find it. In any event, it's a good thing you can rewire Genesis
controllers to work with the Vectrex, so we won't have to worry about being able
to play the working consoles that remain.

Worry not, 2600 fans: I see no reason why we
can't be assured of having working consoles for our entire lifetimes. There are
so many that they can't all fail. Then you have all the clones: Coleco Gemini,
CV Expansion Module #1, etc. Plus, the circuitry inside the 2600 isn't all that
delicate. Other hardware may fare a little worse. There may indeed come a day
when not a single 5200 controller works properly (some say that day was here in
1984). Odyssey2's may become scarcer since they are somewhat prone to chip
failure. Neo-classic-wise, working NES's are going to be much sought after since
they will have a large collector base and the front-loaders never work right.
Luckily there are so many NES consoles that a shortage is unlikely. And for now
anyway, at least you can buy replacement cart contacts from MCM Electronics. But
I would recommend that if you really enjoy playing the NES, you should buy a
top-loader now before they become even more expensive.

Other than consoles with specialized hardware
like the Vectrex, I don't think we have too much to worry about. But in a few
years, I expect to see a few collectors who enjoy electronics making some money
on the side by repairing consoles. Their primary job will be replacing old
capacitors that can no longer hold a charge. Other than that, I can't think of
anything that would routinely go wrong with most consoles. And our game
libraries aren't going anywhere, either: cartridge ROMs are nearly
indestructible, but let's thank those who took the time to archive the
Supercharger games and EPROM-based games: their media may all bite the dust
eventually.

Because of this, I'm going to climb off my
soapbox and onto an even higher soapbox for a minute... There, can you hear me
in the back? Good. Now, let me say: if you have an EPROM based prototype that's
not already available, PLEASE get it archived! There are plenty of guys out
there who will be happy to copy the EPROM to an emulatable(?) form and return
your cart to you, all the while treating it like the museum piece that it is.
Having the ROM data available won't hurt your prototype's value any, but if the
EPROM were to succumb to bit-rot it would hurt not only you but the entire
collecting community. If you're worried about rendering it "worthless"
by making the data available, don't: the people who would pay top dollar are
only willing to pay that amount for the historical value of the cart itself, not
simply for the playable game. It's like making prints of the Mona Lisa available
doesn't hurt the value of the original painting. And, if you're planning on
holding onto the cart for a while until the value "peaks," that's not
a good plan. First, bit-rot could kill it. Also, by waiting you're betting on
two competing variables: collector interest vs. inflation.

You *might* get more money in the future, but
that money will not be "worth" as much. We KNOW inflation will
increase; but will collector interest? If you want to sell it, it's your
business, but do us crazy game players a favor and sell it before bit-rot sets
in.

Sorry to put the rest of you through that.

Well, I think that wraps up my little diatribe. I
hope you enjoyed reading this little article series on the future of classic
videogaming. In general, I think our gaming future looks bright. I plan to stick
around in this hobby, and I hope the rest of you do too.

The
Many Facelifts of PacmanThe old chomper may be 20 years
old, but he is looking better than ever! Sure we all heard about Pacman World
for the Playstation, but that is not the only new Pacman these days. Two classic
Pacman games were given a facelift and they both look spectacular! And the best
part is these are both free! We will look at one this issue and the other
next issue.

The first one is a revamped version of the old
Atari 2600 game. You know, the one you all love to hate! Well, here is someone
who decided to redo the game and make it the way it should have been (do keep in
mind that the orignal Pacman was only 2K). Rob Kudla, decided to redo it and did
a fine job! Pacman never looked so good on the Atari 2600! Now if we can get him
to redo ET, but that is too much to ask of anyone.

You can download the game to use on an emulator
and see some screenshots at the following URL:

Interview
with Rob Kudla
After checking out the game, I thought I would see if the Rob would be willing
to talk more about the new version of Pacman and other projects. He was
gracious enough to allow an interview, so here it is!

Question #1-When did you first decide you
wanted to redo the 2600 Pacman?

Rob-I first thought about it about
a year ago when someone on rec.games.video.classic suggested it might be
possible to hack Ms. Pac Man or Jr. Pac Man into a more enjoyable simulation of
Pac Man. Then after I heard Ebivision demonstrated and immediately pulled their
totally new version of Pac Man at Classic Gaming Expo, I decided to do something
to soothe my wounded 12-year-old inner self. ;) Even then it wasn't until I
found Frank Cruz's page of 2600 hacks on gameovernet.co.uk (he'd done a Space
Invaders hack and I had also recently done one to get "in practice")
and he had a mockup of what such a Pac Man hack could look like.

Rob-I think the original Pacman was
actually 4K, but I haven't actually looked at a binfile of it. Mine began life
as Ms. Pac Man, which was 8K and so is mine.

Question #3-What was the most difficult
part of the project? Any unexpected problems arise?

Rob-The most difficult part of the
project was either moving the bottom energizers out of the corners to where they
are now, or making the fruit stay on screen for an appropriate length of time.
Without the source code

it wasn't very obvious how Atari's programmers
handled either of those things, trivial as they may seem. The only unexpected
problem was my own inexperience, and I kind of expected that ;)

Question #4-I notice that most of your
classic video games that you are >working on are for the Atari 2600, why is
this?

Rob-A number of reasons. One, the
2600 seems to be the best-documented of the old machines, probably because it's
the most common. Two, I have a little bit of 6502 assembler knowledge from way
back in my Commodore 64 days and the 2600 uses the same CPU. Three, the 2600 has
such a reputation for being tough to program, and yet there are elegant ways
around many of its limitations and many have been documented in recent years.
And last, you can't overlook the importance of having a strong community around
a machine to share your hacks with.

Oh yeah, and it's fun and rewarding too :)

Question #5-Are there any other classic systems you have thought about
doing games or improving existing games for?

Rob-Yup, I started a hack designed
to make KC Munchkin for the Odyssey2 look more like Pac Man. I may well end up
trying to write a Pac Man from scratch for it if I find some time and good docs,
but I've been discouraged since the American O2 can't display yellow and I think
that's important to a Pac Man clone. I've also started hacking the Vectrex a
little since I still have one of those in cold storage back home (with light pen
AND 3D goggles - eat that, ebay hounds :P ), but there's nothing to show yet.
And all this 6502 coding has made me want to do a little Commodore 64 coding
again ;)

Question #6-Has most of the response been
positive for it? Do you get requests to improve other Atari games and if so,
which ones get the most requests?

Rob-Yes, the most common complaint
has been about the death sequence, which upsets me too in its
non-arcade-like-ness ;) Overall people seem to really dig the hack, though, and
I appreciate the criticism I did get. I've had a few people suggest I start this
project over using Jr. Pac Man so I could get the maze exactly right, but it
would scroll vertically and I don't think that would really cut it. No other
requests that I can think of, though.

Question #6-I saw you are working on a
Ballblazer version for the Atari 2600. While ti is in the early stages, how much
of the original do you think you will be able to retain?

Rob-Well, the new game is not going
to be an exact copy of Ballblazer of course, though I hope to capture some of
its flavor. I think I should be able to capture most of the play mechanics of
Ballblazer - assuming I don't run out of CPU cycles animating the backgrounds
(even in their not very convincing state!) It may be that you can't look
sideways as you could in Ballblazer for example, and the music won't be as good
as what they could do on the 8-bit computers, and of course there's the
perspective being wrong. But the real test will be how well it plays, and that's
what I'm most concerned with. I feel pretty confident I can make it play well,
slightly less confident I'll get it done anytime soon ;)

Question #7-I see you are a big fan of
emulation. Which emulators are your favorites? Which games were you really
excited to see emulated?

Rob-Well, of course there's MAME,
king of all emulators ;) though lately I discovered MESS32 and my interest in
emulation has been kind of reborn. I like Stella and PCAE for Atari emulation
but would love to see a MESS driver for the 2600, since they both have issues
with Windows NT which I'm often forced to use. No, I'm not volunteering to write
one right now! ;)

As far as which games were exciting to see
emulated, I only discovered emulation when I was searching the web a few years
ago for a PC version of Mappy, probably still my favorite arcade game. I suppose
that would be the really exciting one because it led to everything else. I was
also floored the first time I saw Sonic playing on my screen and looking a lot
better than the PC version I had shelled out for (and didn't crash Windows!) But
I'm most amazed at seeing things like the Adventurevision and Odyssey2 getting
emulated (both by Dan Boris,) poorly documented machines without that much of a
following so the fact that they're working now is a near miracle.

Overall I would rather see more open-source
emulators of old systems than some of the projects I've seen in the last couple
of years where it's, "No, we're not going to release the source because
some l4m3r might try to copy it, so shut up about it or else we'll discontinue
it." Grow up, kids. Emulation is a way to bring extinct machines back from
the dead and preserve them for the future. I would rather stick with the old
stuff.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letters
to the Editor
Q: I know that you've had requests to discuss the Bally Astrocade before.Maybe
you can post this inquiry and a your reply. I have the Bally Basic cart and know
that there were 3rd party cassette games made as well as a newsletter that
provided homebrew (or Bally Inc.) generated program listings. One could type
these up, save them to tape and have the game for later. Does anyone know if
there are games out the for the Astrocade that are made public domain, or is
there a CD project. A CD project like the Cyber Punks did for the Atari 2600
with the Super Charger, or then there is the Intellivision Lives CD. Thanks for
any help. Signed I. Jaun Tmoregames.

A: I have never heard of such a thing, but that
would be great! The hard part would be tracking down all the public domain
games. If anyone knows about anything like this or even a site that has a bunch
of the public domain roms for the Bally Astrocade, let us know.

Q: All you ever talk about is MAME, how about
some of the other great emulators?

A: This issue, I talk about EmuDX and I have
mentioned MESS before, but you do have a point. But MAME has the most games and
is the most universally known, so that is why I gravitate more towards it. Maybe
I will dedicate an issue to talking about all the different emulators.

Data AgeOne of my friends when I was younger had this huge fascination
with the band Journey. No one else liked Journey, but he really loved the guys.
One day he came to school, and was going on and on and on about how there is a
game he saw in a magazine for the Atari 2600 based on the band Journey. For
years and years we made fun of him for listening to Journey (I think on an
episode of the Canadian TV show "Degrassi Jr. High" Journey was
mentioned as a crappy band). Anyways, I just thought he was a liar for years,
until the late-1980's when I discovered the Data Age game "Journey
Escape" on a trip to the United States. Data Age never released games in
Canada, and maybe we're lucky they didn't - I haven't played Journey Escape in
years, and I don't plan on picking it up anytime soon...

Imagic
Imagic released most of their library in Canada, and I always though Imagic
games were the best. The labelling/boxes for the Canadian Market were
multi-lingual with 4 or 5 languages on them, but for the life of me I can't find
a multi-lingual instruction manual. I keep finding lots of english only
instructions, but no multilingual ones - maybe Imagic got lazy on the
instructions since they first made their appearance in Canada in 1983 and didn't
care anymore during the US video game crash. The "international"
editions of Imagic games had no pictures on them, but still had the fancy
metallic labelling. Not all games were released in the Canadian market by
Imagic, I picked up "Moonsweeper" and "Fathom" on a trip to
the United States once, and my friends all wanted their own copy of Moonsweeper
- unluckily for them, Moonsweeper was never released in Canada, and neither was
Fathom, but no one like playing Fathom since it was too complicated (I still
haven't beat the game..).

M-Network
"Hey Ryan, how did you get that Intellivision Game to work in your Atari
2600?" - that is the question that I was asked when I bought a copy of
"Super Challenge Football". M-Network games flooded the market and
were really cheap - but they didn't arrive until the mid-1980's in Canada. Most
of the common titles are everywhere in Canada, but there is no variation from
the US versions. I suspect Mattel saw the crash in the US, and shipped a couple
truckloads of games to Canada to try and dump on a new market. I recall Mattel
getting in trouble for not having French on their packaging, not a common
occurence back in 1985 for video games that had no text/speech. In Canada now,
if your game is in English (text, voices, etc) you only need English packaging
since it's doubtful someone who speaks french is going to purchase a game all in
English anyways, but I don't recall Mattel's excuse other then that they paid a
hefty fine.

Ryan Harrison is a 21 year-old collector from
Brantford, Ontario, Canada, who grew up on a constant diet of Atari 2600,
Commodore 64, Nintendo, and Game Boy. Known locally as the guy "who keeps
wasting quarters on that old Ms. Pac-Man game" at the local bar, he's the
Sumguy you'll run into at the local Thrift in Southern Ontario looking for new
stuff for his collection and hopes Bira Bira will find him Sumgirl that will
take part of his mind off retrogames. He currently makes his own "label
variations" as a Packaging Engineer with 3M Canada. Ryan can be contacted
at ryan.harrison@home.com

Check back next month when we focus on Atari 2600
variations in Canada from Milton Bradley and Parker Bros.

OK, the other day a couple of my classic collector buddies and I got
together for our monthly gaming bash. It's a fun evening where we
usually drink a few beers, play a few games, and curse at a few games.
The cursing usually comes from the losers of our Bomberman games, but
for this occasion most of them came while we were playing the
Colecovision. Yes, for some reason, I suggested we play Cabbage Patch
Kids: Adventures in the Park, because it's a pretty fun game. If you
haven't played it before, it's very similar to Pitfall in that you
continue in one direction dodging obstacles and gaining points. The
biggest differences in this game are that instead of Pitfall Harry you
are a cute little redheaded Cabbage Patch Doll and instead of snakes and
alligators to evade, you have poison ivy, bees, and bouncing blue
balls.

Anyway, so we powered up Cabbage Patch Kids and I played the first
game. To say this as humbly as possible, I played alright making it
pretty far into the game. However, the whole time I was playing, my
buddies were relentless with the jokes about how "this game sucks, it's
for babies", "I can't believe you are playing this game", etc. So after I
was done I sat back and gave them the opportunity to play. The next 30
minutes had to be the most intense head-to-head Cabbage Patch Kid
playing anyone could ever experience! It was also some of the sorriest
Cabbage Patch Kid playing anyone could ever experience also! For
example, the one buddy played and lost all three of his lives without
scoring a single point! I mean, come on. A few minutes ago he was
laughing at the game saying how easy and stupid it was, and now he can't
even score a point? It was classic. And to make the experience even
funnier we heard some of the nastiest obscenities ever. I began to feel
sorry for this poor little cabbage doll scrolling across the
screen.

Anyway, it is a pretty cool game despite its reputation for being a
game for pansies. Give it an unbiased shot some time and I think you'll
see that this game can challenge players older than 7 years old.

(Doug Saxon is a classic game fan with a complete Atari 5200 set (minus
protos). All email can be forwarded to: saxondj@email.uc.edu.)

The
Menace From Outer Space - The ConclusionAs we flew out into space, I was
amazed at the calmness of space. Knowing full well the horror that awaited us, I
expected space to have the same chaotic feel to it. I half expected to be
attacked the moment we were engulfed by the blackness of space. But instead, I
found myself very calm and relaxed. It was the first time in days that I wasn't
on the edge. Even though I only trained for days, there was a certain
confidence. I really felt in control of the ship and was confident that I was
going to save the day.

Our flight to the Zaxxon was a short one. Since
it had been moving towards us, I knew that it would only be a matter of hours,
before we were upon it. As we first saw the monstrous asteroids in the distance,
we couldn't help but feel our stomachs tightening up into little knots. Ahead of
us stood almost certain death. We knew the chances of coming back were remote at
best. The thought of dying out here in this cold, lifeless space was terrifying,
but not as terrifying as the thought of failure and what would become of our
planet. So we all swallowed hard and headed out towards the Zaxxon.

As we neared it, some of the ships broke
formation and headed into different directions. We were all briefed beforehand
on our assignments. I knew that we had some tricks up our sleeve, but what they
were, I have no idea. My mission was simply to fly in and cause as much trouble
as possible. My ship, while not one of the special ones, had been modified. It
was faster, could withstand more damage and had greater firepower than the ships
that came before it. It was superior to the ones that met their demise when the
Zaxxon was first discovered. As the mighty asteroid came closer, my squadron
headed right at it. As we made our way over the immense wall, we got the first
glimpse of the city below. All around were ships that were beginning to ascend
towards us. There were mighty radar dishes that were turning in all directions
and missile silos that just began to shoot out missiles to greet us. I knew it
was my time to act. As the engineers showed me, I opened a panel and was greeted
by a selection of buttons. They were in three color sequences. There was a blue,
then green and lastly a red button. I went and pushed all the blue buttons,
which armed the missiles. Then I moved to push the green buttons which moved
them into place. As I was flying down, I saw some of the enemy ships coming
towards my squadron. I knew that my timing had to be perfect. As I flew down
towards the silos and what appeared to be storage tanks for fuel or something
else, I locked on the target and pressed the first red button. WHOOSH! The
rocket flew straight at the storage tank and I pulled up on the controls to
avoid the coming explosion. When the rocket hit, there was a huge explosion. An
inferno erupted and the enemy ships that were following me, caught the brunt of
the explosion and were obliterated. I let out a loud cheer as I flew in and
searched for the next target.

A few of my buddies weren't so lucky. Jack, who
was flying in to take out a radar dish, was hit by one of the missiles. His ship
was destroyed before he could complete his mission. Willie also died quickly.
While he was able to destroy some of the enemy ships before they got off, he was
also taken out by a missile. It popped out from under him and he never saw it
coming. A great sadness overcame me, but I knew that I had no time for tears. If
I was going to live, I had to strike and strike hard. Up ahead was another
storage tank and I set my sights on it. This time I shot the rocket off and took
a hard turn to the left. As the rocket hit, the explosion was even greater than
the last and this time it also took out some of the enemy ships.

As I straightened out, I saw some enemy planes
coming after me. I knew that they were faster and would catch me quickly, so I
dropped as low as I could and started shooting everything in sight. If I was to
die, I was going to do as much damage as possible. I saw a radar dish and what
looked like some tanks, up ahead. I hit the last two red buttons and sent some
rockets towards them. Then I pulled the controls straight up and flew right past
the amazed ships. If the move wasn't so unexpected, they would have shot me.
Before they had time to react, they were caught in the explosion.

Up ahead, I saw one of the experimental ships. It
flew right at a base of enemy ships and crashed into it, setting of an explosion
like I had never seen. As my ship was rocked by the explosion, I realized it was
a kamikaze ship and was packed with explosives. All of sudden, I didn't feel so
bad about not being chosen. As the asteroid began to shake from the explosion, I
pulled up and headed to the next one. As I looked back, I could see that there
were only a few of us left. We had destroyed one of the asteroids, but at what
cost? There were still many more to go and we were down to about six ships. At
this rate, we would have no chance.

As we flew into the next asteroid, I looked at
the remnants of the squadron and saw there was only one experimental ship left.
As we flew in, we noticed that most of the ships had already left. There were
still the missiles and some enemy ships, but most of us were able to avoid them.
As we flew further in, we only lost two more ships. One to a missile and one hit
the accursed energy fences. Once the last fence was passed, we found ourselves
in a huge, open area. There were no missiles or ships or anything. Before we had
time to question this vast emptiness, we saw something incredible coming. A
great robot, standing over a hundred feet tall headed towards us. If there was
sound in space, I am sure it would have made a terrible noise, like thunder. As
it neared, we heard in our heads, "Beware the power of Zaxxon!" It was
enough to make me want to turn and run. But I stayed in formation as we headed
towards the great behemoth.

Two of the regular ships were first to attack.
They broke formation, one to the right and one to the left. As they did, they
sent out a flurry of missiles. As the missiles flew towards the Zaxxon, great
plates opened up and out shot a flurry of missiles. Not only were the oncoming
missiles destroyed, before they reached their target, but the ships were also obliterated.
That left the experimental ship and myself. The experimental ship was the next
to fly in. As it flew in, a bunch of missiles began to shoot out. I had never
seen so many missiles come from one ship. It was like there were weapons on
every inch of the ship. But none of them reached the Zaxxon as it let out
another volley of missiles, even greater than the last. Soon the ship was
completely destroyed and nothing but dust was left.

Fearing for my life, I pulled up and flew out as
fast as I could. I knew that I had no chance to defeat the Zaxxon and to stay
was suicide. As I flew back towards Earth, knowing that my days were numbered, I
heard a message coming through on the radio. "What's the status,
over." I paused for a moment and said "Everyone is dead except me sir.
We destroyed one asteroid, but the Zaxxon killed the rest of us, over." As
I looked behind me, I saw the mighty Zaxxon, standing there like he was
gloating. It was almost enough to make me want to go back and kill him, but
another message came across. "Come on home, we made a pact with another
race and with their help and the knowledge you have acquired, we are going to
destroy the Zaxxon, once and for all. So head back here and Long Live Gorf!"
That was the final message I heard as I headed back to Earth.

OK, it's the year 2000 and we're still sick of
all those lists of the best of the Year, Decade, Century, Millennium. But then
how about a list of something that we all love - Classic Video Games! In order
to limit this list, I'd like to make it just classic home video game cartridges
and Arcade games made before 1984. This date is not hard and there is always
room for your feedback. Also there should be no duplication from one platform to
another for games like Miner 2049, Frogger, Pac Man, Atlantis, and River Raid
etc. We only want to count them if they are unique - one game listed for each
unique game.

2000 Games is my goal, but we may exceed that, or
fall well short.

Atari 2600 Circus Atari will add up to several
games, one for each unique game within. Rip-off games and clones will be tough
to make a ruling on, but we can always leave them in to start with an
"*". Logic would dictate that Atari 2600 Kool-Aid Man and
Intellivision Kool-Aid Man both be included. They have the same name, but are
clearly unique games.

As a first cut, I've heard that there are about
600 unique Atari 2600 games.

Probably more like 800, but then this may take
some time to verify. I'm sure that a lot of the information out there is in the
Digital Press Guide, or on someone's Atari 2600 database. Then making a quick
count of unique games for the Atari 5200, 7800, Atari Home Computers, Commodore
64, Vic 20, Bally Astrocade, Odyssey 2, Vectrex, Fairchild, Intellivision, and
Colecovision; I am up to around 1200 games. I dropped duplicate games each time
I looked at the next system. Then, it is probably a safe bet that there are 100
or so more games within a game as in Video Olympics. If we throw in about 300+
Arcade game which did not have a home version on cartridge, then we're around
1600-1700 games.

A tough task for me is to count cartridges from
the CoCo, TI-99 and TRS-80 home computers. I know very little about them other
than there are mostly productivity carts for them. I'm hoping to get some help
from you there, to cut the fat off (productivity and educational games), and get
to the meat. Maybe another 100 or so there.

But, before I decide to take on such a huge task,
I'd like to hear from you.

I am not going to start the list unless you tell
Tom that this would be a neat list to have, and one that we can all contribute
to. It would be an ongoing project that hopefully we can complete this year. I
think that 2000 is a good goal to reach, even if we come up short.

Other thoughts: I do no think that we want to add
hand-helds to this list.

Picking a date for the Arcade games is tough, and
not including NES and SMS will offend some people. But then we'd easily exceed
200 games then. If you think that I should GO for it, then let Tom and I know.

Finally, if Tom actually published this article,
then I think that means he's willing to dedicate space on his site to post them
- but only if you agree.

(Alan has recovered very well from Colon
Surgery, and when not making up useless lists, has begun playing more video
games lately. He can be reached at hewston95@stratos.net).

Odds
& Ends
1. In the everything old is new again category, we have more remakes coming.
Another Pacman game, Frogger II and a new Galaga round out the list of games.
Where is the Dragon's Lair 3D game?

2. Classic Gaming Expo has been announced for
July 29-30th. It will once again be in Las Vegas and Ralph Baer has been signed
on as a guest again. I will give more details as they come out. Here is the URL
for more information: http://www.cgexpo.com/

3. There is another video game newsletter that is
online. Like MAMEzine, it also deals with emulation. It is from the guys at
Zophar's Domain, one of the oldest emulation sites. It is a monthly newsletter
and can be found at the following URL: http://www.zophar.net/newsletter/.

eBay
Notes
This month I am going to do something different. Instead of telling you some of
the trends on eBay, I am going to give you some suggestions for purchasing games
to sell on there. While some people roll their eyes and get defensive at the
very mention of selling on eBay, I find it a great way to raise extra income for
your collection.

For this issue, I am going to pretty much
concentrate on handhelds. If you are like me, you see a decent selection of
these at thrift stores and flea markets. But they can be a risky proposition.
Unlike the carts and consoles, they are more likely to be broken. But you can
protect yourself from purchasing a broken one (I learned this after being burned
a few times). Here is what you do, first get a fannysack (you know those little
pouches that you wear around your waist and make you look like a kangaroo).
After you get this, go to the local dollar store and buy up a bunch of
batteries. For best results, you should purchase at least 2- 9 Volts, 4-AA
batteries, 4-C batteries, 4-D batteries and at least one watch battery. Then you
put them in your fannysack and you are ready to test those systems!

The next thing is you should familiarize yourself
with the values of the different systems. You could look at rarity lists, but
almost everything on those are listed as ER and the rarity is not always the
reason for value with handhelds. Alot has to do with nostalgia as is the case
with the Mattel handhelds. Lucky for you, I have been doing a
Handheld/Tabletop/Game & Watch Price Report. So you can use this to get a
basic idea of what these sell for.

So you now have the batteries to test them and an
idea what they are worth, what next? There are a few little things to keep in
mind when looking for handhelds for resale. The most important is that they have
battery covers. Half the value of a handheld is the battery cover. Honest! Take
away that battery case and watch the value plummet. While you are checking the
battery cover, look for rust on the battery connections. The second thing is for
the sticker to be present and in good shape. This is especially important with
ones that had instructions on a sticker. Lastly, when you test them, don't just
make sure they power up. You need to test all the buttons to make sure they
work. Is there a clean connection or do you have to smash the buttons to get
them to work? Also make sure that there a good picture and sound. These will
make a big difference in the amount that you get.

While a boxed unit will fetch alot more money,
good luck finding it. But don't fear as loose ones will command good money if
they are in good, working order and complete. So take a little time to check out
those handhelds before you buy them. Sure, you may get some strange looks, but
it is better than getting a DOA unit.

Video
Game Challenge
I received alot of positive feedback on this topic, that I decided to do another
installment. This time I will pit two of the Pac-man inspired games against each
other. As you know there were alot of maze games after the success of Pac-man,
but not all of them set themselves apart. Two of them took the basic formula and
created exciting and fun games from the genre. These are our contestants,
Ladybug and Mouse Trap. I will use the arcade games for the comparison as it is
the fairest way. So read on and see who wins the Video Game Challenge!

Ladybug
VS
Mousetrap!

GameplayLadybug-A very simple and straightforward game. You move your
ladybug around the maze and try to clear all the dots. What really makes this
game fun to play is that it is just a joystick, making it a very easy game to
learn. But the gameplay is quite deep as you not only clear mazes, but can also
spell words and get bonuses. There are different letters that if ran over when
they are a certain color, will spell out a word. There are also hearts that will
raise the amount of points you get. This adds some strategy to what would be a
simple maze game.

Mousetrap-This is the game for the
person who has the dexterity to master it. While it is a simple maze game, where
you have to clear all the dots, you also have control over different color
doors. By hitting one of three buttons, you open or close doors. There is also
the different bonus prizes that keep coming and the dog bones that allow you to
turn the tables on the cats.

Verdict-Ladybug is an addictive
challenge that will keep you coming back for more. Mousetrap is a fun game, but
the initial learning curve is very steep. Also, all the buttons can be make it
hard to concentrate on the game itself. Point for Ladybug.

AddictivenessLadybug-There are many things that will grab you about the game
and keep you coming back. Besides the simple gameplay, there is the challenge of
spelling out "Bonus" and "Extra." Also, there are the
different kinds of vegetable and the different kind of foes to keep you wanting
to see what the next one is.

Mousetrap-The challenge of
mastering the controls is enough to keep you coming back. Add to that the large
variety of bonuses, with one new one added each round and you have some
incentive to come back.

Verdict-While both have their
addictive qualities, Ladybug is deeper and offers more motivation for repeat
play. Point for Ladybug.

GraphicsLadybug-Like the controls, the graphics are quite simple. The
different enemies range from pretty cool to downright ugly. Even the ladybug
herself is not much to look at.

Mousetrap-While this game also has
simple graphics, they seem a little more polished. There seems to be rounder
curves and the animals just look a little better. The mouse is quite cute and
even the dog has a bit of character.

Verdict-Both games are a little
plain in the graphics department, but Mousetrap is a bit more polished. Both are
close, but Mousetrap wins by a whisker. Point for Mousetrap.

SoundLadybug-While the tune is sorta catchy, the sound as you move
around the maze and pick up the dots is a bit annoying and grates on your
nerves. There isn't alot of variety either.

Mousetrap-This is one area where
Mousetrap shines! Every few levels you get a new tune! The sound effects are
pretty good too with the barking dog and meowing cat.

Verdict-This one isn't close.
Mousetrap rules in the audio department! Point for Mousetrap.

ControlsLadybug-A simple four way control is all you need. The ladybug
moves around with ease and can move those walls with no problem.

Mousetrap-A fine example of how
less is more. While the ability to switch the different doors is unique, it is
also an exercise in frustration. It takes numerous games to get it down and even
then you don't totally have it. Then you add in the dog button and you have your
hands full.

Verdict-While Mousetrap offers more
total control, it also offers more frustration. Ladybug on the other hand is
simple and is the kind of game that anyone can pick up and learn to play. Point
for Ladybug.

Overall Score-Ladybug
3 Mousetrap 2

Final Remarks-The games are
actually as close as the score. If Mousetrap dumped a few buttons or found an
easier way to control all those different colored doors, it could be a dead
heat. Too bad as I really like Mousetrap, just go crazy when I die from hitting
the yellow button instead of the red.

Conclusion
We have reached the big 3-0! Still surprised that I can keep coming up with
articles. Guess one day I will run out, but until that day, I will keep pumping
them out! Finished another prose story, let me know if you want to see another
one or not. Also, any suggestions are welcomed.

Check in next month when I will have a review of
Crazy Climber 2000, Pacman World and the new Q*Bert. That's right, we are having
a themed issue! We will look at the trend of video game remakes on modern
systems. So fire up the Playstation, Nintendo 64 or PC and get retro!